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Appliance and Equipment Standards Program

Appliance and equipment standards are saving are saving consumers and businesses billions of dollars.

The Building Technologies Office (BTO) implements minimum energy conservation standards for more than 50 categories of appliances and equipment. As a result of these standards, energy users saved about $55 billion on their utility bills in 2013. Since the beginning of 2009, 25 new or updated standards have been issued, which will help increase annual savings by more than 50 percent over the next decade. By 2030, cumulative operating cost savings from all standards in effect since 1987 will reach over $1.7 trillion, with a cumulative reduction of 6.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions, equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 1.4 billion automobiles. Products covered by standards represent about 90% of home energy use, 60% of commercial building use, and 29% of industrial energy use.